11/20/2018 Empathy Becomes a Physical Force

Empathy Becomes a Physical Force

The Wonders of Engaging Mirror Neurons in Therapy

Babette Rothschild (/author/bio/2194/babette-rothschild) • 12/16/2014 • 1 Comment

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Empathy is the connective tissue of good therapy. It's what enables us to establish bonds of
trust with clients, and to meet them with our hearts as well as our minds. Empathy enhances our
insights, sharpens our hunches, and, at times, seems to allow us to "read" a client's mind. Yet,
vital as it is to our arsenal of therapy techniques, empathy has remained a rather fuzzy concept
in psychotherapy. To many of us, it seems to arise from a kind of potluck stew of emotional
resonance and insight, seasoned with lots of attuned presence and a generous dollop of luck.

Far from the consultation room, in the precisely measured environment of the research
lab, neuroscientists are discovering that a particular cluster of our neurons is speci cally
designed and primed to mirror another's bodily responses and emotions. We're hardwired, it
appears, to feel each other's happiness and pain---more deeply than we ever knew. Moreover,
the royal road to empathy is through the body, not the mind. Notwithstanding the river of words
that ow through the therapy room, it's the sight of a client looking unhappy, or tense, or
relieved, or enraged, that really gets our sympathetic synapses ring.

I rst recognized the physical force of empathy as a college student, with the help of my friend
Nancy, who was studying to be a physical therapist. As we walked down a street together, she'd
follow total strangers and subtly mimic their walking style. Copying a stranger's gait, and feeling
it in her own body, gave her practice in identifying where one of her patients might be sti .
Intrigued by this mysterious way of "knowing" someone, I asked her to teach me to do it, too. I
began to surreptitiously mimic the walks of all manner of unsuspecting folk, from unsteady
older people to cooler-than-thou teenage hipsters. What startled me was that not only did
"walking in someone else's shoes" change the way I felt in my body, but it often altered my
mood as well. When I copied the swaggering gait of a cocky young man, for example, I'd
momentarily feel more con dent---even happier---than before. I found this secret street life
fascinating and fun, but I didn't think much about it until a few years later when I started
practicing clinical social work.

Breathless

On my rst job in the mid-1970s working in a family service agency, I began to notice peculiar
things happening in my body when I sat in my o ce with clients. Some of my responses could
be blamed on newbie jitters, but I strongly sensed that there was more to it than that. I
particularly remember my bodily reactions to a young client named Allison. As she recounted
the crises of her week in a spacey, disconnected way, she kept her body very still, and I had to
lean forward to hear her whispery, almost inaudible, voice. As we worked together, I began to
notice that I often felt lightheaded when working with her. When I began to pay attention to
what was happening in my body, I found that my breathing had become very shallow---in fact,
nearly undetectable. No wonder I was feeling lightheaded and spacey: I wasn't getting enough
oxygen!

Turning my attention back to Allison, I noticed that her chest was barely moving. I was taken
aback: we were breathing alike! I remembered then how my mimicry of walking patterns in
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college had often a ected my bodily sensations and moods. Were my lightheadedness and
general feelings of disconnectedness just the result of new-therapist nervousness, or the direct
result of my imitation of Allison's breathing? If our breathing had actually become synchronized,
I realized, it was totally unconscious on both our parts.

In all of my graduate-school discussions on the therapeutic relationship, including the ne points

of transference and countertransference, I couldn't remember anyone who'd ever mentioned
the possibility of "catching" bodily behaviors. I began a serious study and practice of body
psychotherapy.

My body psychotherapy colleagues and teachers seemed to accept readily that their bodies
were "in tune with" or "resonating with" those of their clients. Like actors, they regarded their
bodies as essential, nely honed instruments of their craft. From these practitioners, I learned
postural mirroring, a technique instigated by dance therapists, wherein I'd attempt to get a
reading on a client's emotional state by copying the way he sat, stood, or moved. There wasn't a
lot of debate about the usefulness of such a technique: body psychotherapists simply assumed
that "the body doesn't lie."

Orchestrating Empathy

Neuroimaging research in humans suggests that we may have a similar mirror-neuron system
that allows us to deeply "get" the experience of others. When people watch other individuals
drumming their ngers, kicking a ball, or biting into an apple, the sectors of their brains that turn
on are the same sectors that activate when they perform these behaviors themselves.

While neuroscientists continue the slow work of con rming these promising ndings and
theories, therapists can begin to apply them now to empathize more strategically and e ectively
with their clients. Because empathy is rooted in the body, the more mindful therapists are of
their own somatic responses, the more skillfully they can choose to engage mirror neurons to
gain valuable information about a client's emotional state. Equally important, a therapist can
choose to slow down, or even halt, the brain's rush to empathize when it might overwhelm the
client---or the therapist.

This blog is excerpted from “Mirror Mirror.” Read the full article here. >>
(http://daily.psychotherapynetworker.org/daily/brain-science/mirror-mirror/)

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1 Comment

Saturday, December 20, 2014 5:11:49 PM | posted by Geir Vik

What about the client mirroring the therapists posture and emotions, a contribution to
therapeutic skills?

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